Gunmen behead four, kill four others in Rivers

According to the source, the Deygbam cultists visited the community around 3 a.m. to avenge the death of their member, who was killed by the Icelanders last month.

Suspected cultists yesterday beheaded four persons in Ibaa community in Emohua Council of Rivers State. The Guardian gathered that same rampaging gangsters, who invaded the community on a reprisal attack, killed additional four persons.

A source in the community, who preferred anonymity, said the hoodlums escaped with the victims’ heads. According to the source, the Deygbam cultists visited the community around 3 a.m. to avenge the death of their member, who was killed by the Icelanders last month.

He said: “Some cultists invaded the community and have killed at least eight people. They killed four and beheaded another four people. “The whole people are living in fear, but the killers were shouting in the night that we should not run, that they know the people they were looking for.”

The source lamented that beheading of victims was gradually becoming a norm and latest style of killing in the state, regretting that nothing serious was being done by the authorities to check the ugly trend.

He, however, called on the state government and security operatives in the state to rise to the occasion and restore peace in the troubled community.

The Police Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, while confirming the incident, added that personnel of the command had been drafted to the community to restore normalcy.

Omoni said it was cult reprisal that led to the killings, stressing that the number of casualties had not been ascertained by the command as at press time.